Longtime Pokémon Director Might Be Stepping Down

Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee might be the last time Junichi Masuda sits in the Pokémon director seat.

Masuda has been at Game Freak, the studio behind Pokémon, since its founding. After working as a composer on Pokémon Red and Blue, the first game he directed was Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. He’s been a mainstay since then as either director or producer.

In an interview on Pokemon.com, Masuda recently said, “...it’s important to have the younger generation at Game Freak take over the development of Pokémon as a series. I do believe this will probably be, in terms of the main Pokémon RPGs, the last time that I work as the director.”

For the sake of the series, it is important to hand off development to the younger staff to keep the series fresh and to help ensure its future.

Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee will be released on November 16. You can follow Masuda on Twitter right here.

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